It is the objective of the total project to gain a detailed understanding of the biosynthesis of the antitumor antibiotic complex mitomycin produced by Streptomyces verticillatus. Work to be carried out will aim to substantiate a postulated role of 3-dehydroquinic acid in mitomycin biosynthesis in feeding experiments with C13 and C14 labeled precursors. Experiments will also be carried out with specifically labeled hexosamines to explore in depth the role of aminosugars in mitomycin biosynthesis. Furthermore the suspected origin of the carbamoyl group of mitomycin from the intact carbamoyl group of citrulline will be investigated and studies on the enzymes of S. verticillatus active in arginine metabolism will be undertaken. In addition synthetic studies will be carried out to probe possible mechanisms of the joining of the hexosamine derived C6N unit and the C6N unit which participate in mitomycin biosynthesis.